the rms titanic sank in the early morning hours of 15 april 1912 in the north atlantic ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from southampton to new york city. the largest ocean liner in service at the time, titanic had an estimated 2, 224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23 : 40  ship's time  [ a ] on sunday, 14 april 1912. her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02 : 20  ship's time ; 05 : 18 gmt  on monday, 15 april, resulted in the deaths of more than 1, 500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. 